Cathy Holden writes:

‘Yeuch! That’s disgusting!’ was the main reaction of both boys and girls to the perfectly dried frog Colin produced from its small box.  However, that reaction only lasted a fleeting moment, after that they all wanted to hold the frog and were surprised to feel the leathery texture and to look at what appeared to be a smile on its face.

We were taking part in the Science Fair for Primary Schools held at Court Moor School in the week before Easter.  Run by First Partnership it aimed, through a variety of exhibitors, to show primary children how science can be used in the workplace. The two days were very well attended by children in Year 5 of the primary schools in Fleet and surrounding villages.

Bio-diversity was our topic and most of the children knew what a ‘Food Chain’ was and how it works. We moved onto wasps and wasps’ nests. Colin brought out a range of nests from the first one made by a queen, to the finished article which would have housed several hundred wasps.  Like me, they were intrigued by the sheer beauty of the nest and the thought of the teamwork necessary to build it.

Looking at a range of bugs and beasties under the microscope was by far the most popular activity at our table.  We looked at wasps, bees, spiders, beetles and flies amongst many other insects. The dragonfly and nymph specimens intrigued the children, the fact that such a large insect had unfolded from, what was now the empty shell of the nymph, was a matter for great discussion.

When asked the question ‘How many of you know Fleet Pond?’ a good number of children put up their hands and said that they regularly walk it. When asked ‘Do you know how deep it is?’ They were shocked to be told it is under a metre deep, they had thought it would be well over their heads.

The one and half days spent at the fair were very enjoyable.  The children were enthusiastic and asked many questions, and it was very satisfying to hear them walk away saying ‘That was brilliant, much more interesting than I thought it would be!’ From a group of 10 year olds that was praise indeed.

At The End Of The New Corridor

Colin Gray writes:

The day could be described as a biodiversity benefit day on a small scale. Volunteers went into the woodland that separates the small woodland glade we call Gelvert Glade to clear dense holly shrubs and remove selected young trees to open a narrow corridor between the Glade and Fugelmere Marsh to the west.

The objective was to admit more light to the woodland floor to stimulate a diversity of ground plants to regenerate.

This will benefit insect life that depends on flowering plants.  The corridor will also create a flight path for bats.  Bats use the Gelvert Stream as a feeding corridor between the canal and the Pond.  This new corridor will create a linking feed corridor to the marsh.  Breaks in the tree canopy create turbulent air at tree canopy level which concentrates flying insects, ideal feeding zones for bats.

Building The Fire

Cutting Down The Holly

The results of the Fleet Pond Society (FPS) Photography Competition for 2009 were given at the FPS Annual General Meeting held in February this year. The full results of the competition (winners and highly commended) are given on the FPS website, here we give just the winners in each of the three categories: Birds, Work & Play and Sunrise/Sunset.

The competition was judged by Richard Warburton who is a local professional commercial photographer, based in Church Crookham. He is a member of the British Institute of Professional Photographers.

Please click each photo for a larger version.

We are in the process of setting up the competition for this year, 2010. If you have any views or ideas on how we could do things differently or better we would be delighted to hear from you. Please leave a comment below this post or else email me.

ADULTS

Category: Birds – Winner: Mark Hodson

Category: Work & Play – Winner: Marrion Boorman

Category: Sunrise/Sunset – Winner: Mark Hodson

UNDER 16’s

Category: Birds – Winner: Josephine Hodson

Category: Work & Play – Winner: Thomas Bristow

Category: Sunrise/Sunset – Winner: Thomas Hodson

Jim Storey writes:

Planning for our exciting event on 22 May began today when Laura Hill, the OPAL Coordinator at Imperial College visited the Pond to discuss the basics for our joint event to celebrate International Biodiversity Day together. She was checking out what we had to offer and was well impressed with this little watery gem of ours. We’ll be running a wide variety of nature-based activities with a wide variety of national and local groups at the Picnic Spot as well as Boathouse Corner and The Green. Fleet’s ‘Captured Moments’ photographers will be recording the day for us. So please put it in your diary!

For the first step on the path to a brighter future for Fleet Pond see here.

Colin Gray writes:

We plan to tackle the bat corridor between Gelvert Glade and Fugelmere Marsh (see map on About page above).  Work has been done to open the woodland but we have not quite broken through to the marsh so there will be a few more young trees to fell.

Further details on the volunteer event schedule and meeting details can be found here.